“So let me get this straight…” Sunny mumbled and marched around the table. “You two are…lovers?”

 

Tiffany and I smiled at each other from across the table and nodded simultaneously at the pilot of Poseidon’s Gem.

 

We both called for a meeting in my ship, having all the essential members of our crew be part of it since the purpose of this meeting was to announce our relationship to everybody. We sat at a long table where most of my crew meetings were held and at one side sat Yuri and I as Sooyoung and Yoona stood behind me while at the other side sat Tiffany, Jessica with Sunny, her Quartermaster: Hyoyeon and her Medic: Seohyun standing behind her as well.

 

After we revealed everything, most of them couldn’t believe it. Some even concluded that one of us was planning this to just kill each other when they were weak. But after they saw our sincere smiles, they finally took the time to take it in.

 

“H-How is that possible?” Sunny continued to utter in shock.

 

“I can’t believe this Captain. After all those conversations you had with me about hating her very guts, it’s really impossible to believe.” Yoona interrupted, stepping out from behind me to meet my face.

 

“I know how much of a shock this is to all of you but…it really is true. I’m sorry that it’s quite a big confusion but we really do love each other.” I explained calmly, placing my hand at my ship’s pilot’s shoulder to calm her down a bit.

 

And right then, Tiffany spoke up from across the table. “If you don’t believe it or you somehow doubt my feelings for your captain, is there something I could do to convince you?” She suggested in a calm manner and firm expression, keeping her clasped hands on the table while sitting straight.

 

Everybody started glancing at each other.

 

I bit my lip, suddenly feeling nervous. I felt myself feel loose, thinking that they’ll do something inappropriate and I started to roam my eyes across the room.

 

But right then, I met her beautiful twinkling smiling eyes.

 

I didn’t have to worry anymore; I knew she had everything under control.

 

“We want to know if you’re serious so…what happens to both of you? Will you still fight? Or are we going to sail back to our country to have both of you settled down?” Yoona finally replied.

 

Tiffany and I blinked at each other before smiling, knowing that we had this all worked out. “Well…Yoona, Taeyeon and I actually discussed that already.” She grinned cheekily. “We’re going to merge ships.”

 

10 seconds of dead silence.

 

9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1…

 

“But Captain! The Atlantic Compass is built to be independent!”

 

“The Poseidon’s Gem was built to be handled by 1 captain and 1 of each essential crew member!”

 

“The structure of our ship is impossible to hold all of the people!”

 

“It’ll take forever for the carpenters to come up with a ship that you have in mind!”

 

“Taeyeon! You never told me about this!”

 

“Tiffany “Miyoung” Hwang, I’m so going to kill you for not informing me first!!”

 

~~~

 

            1am into the night, I was faced with a lot of planning and ordering-around just to make a ship for Tiffany and I to call ‘ours’. Both of our ships stood on stand-by on shore for already 3 days and not physical progress has been made. So far, both of our crews are collecting as much resources as possible while Tiffany and I work on our ship.

 

This idea of ours really was easier said than done. It’s hard to construct a ship that can contain the number of people we have together. I’m not even gonna think on how are we gonna divide the positions.

 

I sighed heavily as I finished the draft of blueprints for our ship. “It shouldn’t be this hard~” Fany whined while sitting across me.

 

I chuckled at her impatience and propped my elbow on the table, resting my face against my hand. “If worse comes to worst, we might just have to use one of our ships.”

 

Tiffany whipped her eyes to me instantly and eyed me carefully. “…what happens to the other ship?”

 

“We’ll have to destroy it then.” I explained, holding back my smirk.

 

“…T-Then yours gets destroyed!” She immediately exclaimed.

 

“Why mine? My ship is bigger.” I grinned.

 

“But…” She slammed the table with her right hand. “Yah! My poor Poseidon’s Gem!!” She squealed. I burst out laughing and reached out to hold her hand for assurance.

 

“I won’t let that happen. I don’t want you to cry all night.” I smiled and stood up, leaning across the table. “I promise to just join our ships and not destroy either one fully, okay?” She nodded before I leaned over more to capture her lips with a smile.

 

“You better…” She mumbled between a kiss and smiled back.

 

“Alright. I know you’re my little sister’s girlfriend but that doesn’t mean that I enjoy seeing you guys connecting lips.” An icy voice interrupted our moment, causing me to pull away and sit back down on my chair. We both turned to the doorway and found our first mates to be just entering the room. “Besides, you have too much planning to do.”

 

“But we’ve been planning for hours! We’ve already worked out the amount of space we need, cabins, artillery and everything basic—“

 

“Have you figured out how to retain the rapid speed of Poseidon’s Gem?” Jessica asked expectantly.

 

“And how to keep all the vast power of The Atlantic Compass?” Yuri questioned with a raised eyebrow.

 

Tiffany and I turned to each other, sighing heavily with our heads hanging low in a second.

 

“That’s right. Now you better continue planning and don’t complain since you two are the ones who made this crazy idea.” Jessica continued and hit Tiffany’s head lightly like a big sister while Tiffany pouted like a little sister. I smiled at the cute bond they head—but then a smack landed at the top of my head.

 

“Same goes for you, my dear friend.” My first mate instructed, sternly. She wasn’t even the usual dorky best friend I know, it’s like we were in the battle field. It scared me a bit.

 

I stared at her before sighing heavily and turning back to our planning. “Alright, Fany-ah, let’s continue…” I mumbled reluctantly. Tiffany nodded lightly, still pouting.

 

Both of them nodded at us and turned to leave but Jessica looked back, stating, “Good. We’ll be back after an hour or so. If you still haven’t made any major progress, we’re not continuing with this. Period.”

 

“What?! But—“ They already left before either of us could even argue back with that deadline.

 

“Aish, those two…” I cursed under my breath and skimmed through our plans bitterly.

 

 “Hm…Taengoo.” The suddenly calm person across me called. I looked up from the desk, seeing her face as if she figured out something.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Don’t you think…those two are compatible for each other?” She suggested with a small smirk.

 

I blinked at her and leaned to my side, looking at the door where the two recently exited from before turning back to Tiffany.

 

~~~

 

            The person whose head was placed on her arms on the desk across me groaned in frustration before lifting her head up, facing me with a tired face. “Taengoo-ah…I don’t wanna plan anymore.” She whined.

 

“Well…good for you…Because…” I let my sentence prolong as I was just adding a few more details. “We’re done!” I announced and put my pencil down.

 

“What? How did you do that? We still had to figure out how to lighten the ship for our weapons…” Tiffany mumbled, yawning and stretching afterwards.

 

I chuckled at the cute sleepy person. Even though did most of the work after 2 hours ago, I didn’t mind since I kept seeing Tiffany yawn and whine so adorably. She kept me awake throughout this whole plan-making. “All we have to do is use lighter wood…and lay off on a few of our people. Other than that, we’ve already figured out everything from shape, appearance and color to speed, power and agility.” As soon as I finished that, I held up our blueprints with a proud grin.

 

But the person I was talking to was only looking at me blankly with her eyes constantly blinking.

 

I put the blueprint down and walked to her side. Poking her cheek, I said, “Okay, you’re at your limit. C’mon, I’ll walk you to your ship.”

 

“Can’t I just…sleep here, tonight?” She muttered and hid her face with her arms on the table.

 

“But there’s no extra bed here, Fany.” I answered and rubbed her back to make sure that she’s still conscious and won’t sleep on me.

 

“What are you talking about? I’m gonna sleep with you, of course…” She mumbled, turning her head to me with furrowed eyebrows. I blushed at her statement, just thinking about the two of us being together in bed.

 

“I-I…isn’t that—You—Me—I can’t—“ I stuttered. My head was just filled with so many thoughts about being not ready for something like this.

 

Tiffany suddenly stood up, smirking. “Taeyeon?” She called softly, still grinning and pulled me closer. My arms were wrapped around her waist by her own hands and she leaned her face so close to me—doing that all while smirking. “What are you thinking…?”

 

“…Nothing. Nothing.” I couldn’t even reply right with my face heating up.

 

She giggled and stepped back. “You’re the cutest. I’m not planning to do anything, Taengoo. I just wanna sleep as soon as possible.” She winked and turned around to leave the room and into my bedroom.

 

I still stood there, flushed with the event that just happened.

 

It took me another minute to just move again and clear my head. “Aish, my girlfriend’s such a tease.”

 

~~~

 

            The rest of the night’s 3 hours passed by too quickly as Tiffany and I slept in my room. We were so tired from using our minds to come up with the final draft of our ship but construction had to start as soon as possible, and the most immediate time was first thing in the morning.

 

It was worse for me since I couldn’t even sleep a wink. Not with Tiffany being in the same bed as me.

 

At 6am, Tiffany was already asleep and making cute sleeping expressions but I was just staring at the angel in my arms. I wondered every minute if she could hear my heart beating so loud since I was so afraid of waking her up. As her eyebrows furrowed or her eyes closed harder, I kept staring at her in adoration and wondered what she was dreaming about. “Tae…” She mumbled, still sleeping and cuddling closer to me. I couldn’t help but smile and pull her closer, smelling her lovely scent.

 

“I love you, Fany…I’m so grateful that I have someone like you. That I’m merging ships with you and the fact that we both love each other so much.”

 

About 15 minutes later, I heard noises on deck…and Yuri and Jessica already talking to each other outside of our room. I sighed silently, seeing as the sun came up without me sleeping asleep for even a second.

 

“KIM TAEYEON!”

 

“HWANG MIYOUNG!”

 

Our first mates shouted. “WAKE UP!!”

 

~~~

 

            (Yuri’s POV)

 

            I laughed at the two lovebirds who were just sitting against a tree near the shore while both of their ships were practically being destroyed for construction. Jessica and I stood on the back deck of the Atlantic Compass, just watching those two fall asleep on each other’s shoulder.

 

Our arms were on the wooden fence of the ship while standing next to each other. We were left in charge of maintaining the continuous progress of our new ship since they begged to just continue sleeping. I couldn’t help but chuckle as Tiffany fell on Taeyeon’s lap.

 

I heard a chuckle beside me as well. “Can’t believe my little sister is so happy with that girl.” I turned to her, raising my eyebrow.

 

“Is that an insult to my best friend?”

 

She looked at me and shook her head with a smile. She explained her sentence, looking back at the shore. “I just can’t believe that my little sister beat me into finding someone that loves them as much as they do. She wasn’t lied to or fooled or used. She found Taeyeon instead.” She smiled bitterly. “Unlike me.”

 

I quickly jumped to what she said but before I could even reply, she already pulled away from leaning against the fence and walked to the crew to check on them.

 

I blinked in confusion at the girl who was shouting at the crew to maintain their focus before looking back at the two people against the tree. “Hm…I’m not the only one, huh.”